Acts 1
The Acts of the Holy Spirit
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Friday, July 3.
What does a “successful” church look like?
For most Christians, the answer to that question means you have to turn to the 5th book of the New Testament: Acts of the Apostles. Today, we start our 5 weeks of devotions in Acts.
Acts 1:14 records of the New Testament Church, “All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.”
Here is an Acts mark of church success: the members are in “one accord,” which means, according to a dictionary, that they were brought into agreement with one another. Something or someONE acted upon the members to bring them into agreement with one another!
Jesus prayed for us to have this unity, this “one accord” in John 17. Check out His prayer for us.
Did you know that no church can be of “one accord” without someONE acting upon us to bring us there?
And that ONE is not me, a pastor, or any man or group of people! In fact, we get in the way of being in “one accord” most of the time, demanding that our ways as His ways and our thoughts as His thoughts. There is no greater and more destructive pride than spiritual pride.
For any church to have any chance of being successful, I think we should think differently about the book we call, the “Acts of the Apostles.” It should be called the “Acts of the Holy Spirit”. If we are going to be of “one accord” and fulfill Jesus’ prayer of John 17 in our church, it will only be by the work of the Holy Spirit.
Seize the moment and be faithful to God. Get in one accord with God, then let Him get us in one accord with one another.
Have a great day!